. the president meanwhile isinhawaiiandwon't be returning until tomorrow. now, normally nothing happening would not be big news in washington. nothing happening is kind of the status quo in washington. getting nothing done is to our political system as saying great is to tony the tiger. it's just kind of what we do now. right now, this week, nothing happening is huge news. the reason is that usually when washington doesn't do anything nothing happens. you do nothing, nothing happens. that's how it goes. in fact that's why people call it doing nothing. after you do it, nothing occurs. if washington doesn't do something, a lot happens. all the bush tax cuts expire, the payroll tax cuts expire. doctors participating in medicare, see their reimbursements cut by more than 25%. good luck getting a doctor then. more than a trillion dollars in spending cuts are triggered. the economy probably falls back into recession, and merry christmas and happy new year from washington to you, the american people. heard about the offers and the counteroffers president obama and house speaker john boehner put

. criminal charges against him were dropped. >>> the stateofhawaiiisno longer 50th in voter turnout. it's tied for 49th with west virginia. this time around, they've got company at the bottom. both west virginia and hawaii tenned out 44.2% of its voters in 2012. >>> the duke of cambridge decided to cancel a scheduled appearance at a military event to be with his pregnant wife. katherine has been battling acute morning sickness. they are supposeded to attend the royal premiere of "the hobbit" tomorrow but the daily mail says katherine may not be well enough to go. >> if he skips the hobbit for her, that is true love. i'll be impressed. >> thank you. 17 minutes past the hour. time for early reads, local news making national headlines. we're starting with the charlotte news and observer in north carolina where a federal judge ruled the state cannot issue choose life license plates without offering ones with different view points. he called it viewpoint discrimination and violation of the first amendment. pro-choice advocates and the aclu praised that decision but the ruling suggests, they

days left to act. gop still mia. joining me nowfromhawaii, kristinwelker. was the president expected? >> we did expect that given there was no deal on the fiscal cliff that he would have to return early from his hawaiian vacation. he will be flying out late or this evening. the first lady and the first daughters continuing his hawaiian vacation. he will find himself in a similar situation. the negotiations are largely deadlocked. just to give you a sense of how we got to where we are, if you go back to last week, it seemed like the house and speaker were getting close to getting a big deal that would have included tax reform and deficit reduction. that fell apart. house speaker john boehner tried to get his own bill through the house. he realized he didn't have enough votes for that. that fell apart as well. the ball is in the senate's court. according to an aide, senate majority leader harry read will not bring a bill to the floor unless he believes he will not have the support to get it passed or at least not to block it. that is the strategy right now. president obama will be work

will plunge the economy back into recession. president obama flies backfromhawaiitonightto be ready if the senate comes back with a plan when it returns to work tomorrow. and house leaders are huddling with members on stand-by to return. senior congressional correspondent dana bash is following all of it for us. what are you hearing? >> there was a conference call of course members of the house leadership even, they're back in their districts, but there was a conference call today among those house republican leaders trying to figure out if and when the house should come back into session. two republican sources tell me they did not make a decision on this call. it's still up in the air. and a big reason for that is if anything can get done in the next six days, the ball is in the senate's court. the capitol is a ghost town. neither chamber in session. an eerie calm since the fiscal cliff only congress has the power to avert is less than one week away. from their home, senate democratic leaders is trying to figure out if the president's scaled back bill can pass congress at the 11th

the way backfromhawaiiandcut his vacation short if he's eager to go over the cliff in is that part of his charade. >> if he wants to actually blame other people for his lack of leadership he has to appear, at least, to be coming back to find a solution. if the president was really interested in the level of the debt we have in this country, the $16 trillion, we would have had a budget passed in the senate sometime in the last three years. he proposed a budget and none of the democrats even voted for it. it got 0 votes. i don't think the president is focused where we ought to be focused which is the spending. we have a spending problem. he's fixated on tax rates that only give you about seven days of what the government spends. >> he didn't get any votes on his budget or not very many, but i will give him credit for at least submitting one. it's more than senator harry reid has done on behalf of the senate democrats. the senate democrats haven't proposed a budget. and unless everyone puts a budget on the table there can't be a discussion. senator harry reid has a pocket veto on the

over the cliff. >> mike, what happens to the president's plans? he usually goestohawaiiforchristmas and new year's. he'd have to stay in washington. >> i don't know that. because the president's not going to want to look like he's a captive of washington. he did stay here once before and then extended his vacation. that was part of why i've been predicting december 23rd. but these stages of grief by both sides are just going slower than they expected. they're doing the dance, but it's just so slow. so i think it's possible that nothing happens next week, that next week we get a real proposal from either side. but they're not making -- we've been talking about this for months and months. but the guys in the actual room have only been doing this for a couple days. and they're not ready to concede yet. they're still at their sort of starting gate positions. >> mike, is there any sort of quiet blue dog action on this on either the right or the left, more moderate members who are talking maybe offline who may step into the breach if there is one? >> there's a little bit, and there's cert

drive. probably one of the rainiest highways in the country. and our friendsinhawaii, eventhey're dealing with some rain and thunderstorms from maui all the way through. so today's forecast for your wednesday, it's still mild for this time of the year especially the southern half of the country. but we've returned to normal in the northern plains. still no snowstorms on the way across the country over the next three to four days. average temperatures to slightly above. if you're dreaming of a white christmas this may be a difficult year to get it on the ground. you're watching "morning joe." [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ >>> of the congressional committee chairs selected thus far for the next congress they are all white males. >> oh,

ever have your mustache slashed. >> never trust a black man unless he's borninhawaiiwithouta mustache. >> gene robinson, do you concur? >> is any mustache safe in the world these days? i'm scared. i'm scared. >> i don't think it is. well, congressman, how are we doing in this effort to avoid the fiscal cliff? do you think it may -- we're encouraged around here at least that the president and john boehner are going to be talking face to face. >> are we naive? >> a little bit. >> sad without a second's hesitation. >> wow! >> look, it's a simple deal, but the circumstances are not simple. and i think we're going to get a deal, on my optimistic side, we're going to get a deal. my pessimistic side is it may be later. we may do something between now and january 1st, but there is no way we're going to do what needs to be done between now and december 31st. >> is that a good thing in terms of doing the longer term? >> we've got to deal with the payroll tax, or many americans are going to end up losing about $1,000 to $1,500 a year out of their checks. we've got to figure out how to

arrives on time. 72 degrees he leavesinhawaii. 38degrees he arrives to here in washington. and believe me, they're going to need to bring some of that sunshine here because there's certainly not a lot of smiles on the faces of the lawmakers as they come back. >> kurt andersen. >> chuck, this is kurt andersen. i've heard you talk how important you think it is to get a deal done in order to establish a level of comity, that's c-o-m-i-t-y. >> reporter: the other comedy is worth talking about, too. >> are you of the mind that there will be a deal sooner rather than later, like by next tuesday, or a grand bargain in order to sort of get the debt ceiling and other things out of the way for a while? >> reporter: no, i think they've got to get the large deal. and here's the thing, i still think they could get a large deal, you know, the debt ceiling -- using the debt ceiling as leverage, i think politically, by the way, republicans had totally misreading the landscape on this up with. if they think that's a good idea come february to use the debt ceiling, raising that as leverage, again, i thi

through saturday morning because a bunch of them are goingtohawaiiforsenator inouye's funeral. >> right. >> so that shuts down any work to be done on the 22nd, the 23rd and 24th. so then they have to come back the 27th -- as little time there is, there's even less. that's my point. >> do you think that the republicans are in any way, shape or form playing differently than they have before? has anything changed? are they -- is there -- >> yeah, i think the one thing that's changed, i don't think the republican party is united. and if boehner messes around too long, i think you'll start hearing more and more senate republicans in the rank and file start to complain loudly. >> that's the other question. >> you're hearing them grumble right now, but the grumble is going well, they're all looking at it on the bright side. well, maybe boehner's trying to bring along the conservative. they're, like, giving him this last moment. >> that's the other thing. remember in 2011 when it looked really bleak right before the debt ceiling, it was mitch mcconnell who stepped in and tried to find

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